Treat Me For Just Who I Am: An In-Depth Look at the Life & Final Days of Chyna

For this article, WrestlingNewsSource.com got the opportunity to speak with one of Chyna's dearest friends, Rob Potylo. Mr. Potylo is a comedian, musician, and film producer, who was working with Chyna to produce her documentary, The Reconstruction of Chyna, at the time of her passing. He was one of her closest friends and actually lived with both Chyna and her manager Anthony Anzaldo at one point.

Rob has spoken with several media outlets regarding Chyna's passing and some of the details about the final days of her life, but now he would like the chance to go into more detail about what was actually going on with Chyna at the time of her passing and for the last few months of her life.

Tell us about your time living with both Chyna and her manager Anthony Anzaldo. What was their relationship like, and how would you describe the relationship between the three of you?

I lived with her and Anthony on the road, going back to his beach house in Redondo, and then on the floor of the living room of that house for two months (Chyna got the couch), while I helped film, produce, and upload video for the documentary. 90% of the time, Anthony was generally very pleasant. We all had similar senses of humor, and had a bunch of fun times.

I understand he had a plan to get Chyna back on track, but he also seemed to want to put her in a shit-load of Comic-Cons, get her back into porn, and generally get her plugged back into a crazy schedule without seeing that she needed rehab and counseling pretty much right off the bat. Anthony also had a brutal, brutal temper. When he didn't like the way things were going, or didn't feel he was receiving "consideration", he would go off like you wouldn't believe. I was at the receiving end of this once or twice, and heard Chyna on the receiving end of this too. I also heard this temper many other times with family, or on the phone.

In August of 2015, Anthony and Chyna went to Vegas for some weekend event. She had failed to meet her wake-up call at 8:00 AM on Sunday morning, and Anthony decided that he'd "had enough". He left her in Vegas for five days by herself. I was woken up that Sunday night to unearthly screaming; Anthony was on the phone with Chyna, shouting, "I don't care what F'ing happens to you! You are shit!" I was so scared, both for her and myself. I really was prepared to die at that point. The police got called by the neighbors, he was so loud.

Chyna finally got on a Greyhound to LAX, and Erik had to hook her up with an Uber to get back to Redondo. When she came through the door, she was F'd up as all hell with her pants hanging off her hips.

Back in the summer of 2015, WWE Hall of Famer Roderick Toombs, better known to the world as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, sadly passed away in his sleep at the age of 61. After his funeral, there were rumors circulating on the internet about Chyna's behavior at Roddy's funeral. More specifically, there were rumors that she allegedly "rushed over" to WWE Chief Operating Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque, who Chyna had dated for several years back in the 1990's, and created somewhat of a scene during the funeral. What can you tell us about the circumstances surrounding Roddy's funeral? How did Chyna feel about Roddy's passing, and was it her intention to somehow "confront" Paul Levesque at the funeral or create any kind of a scene?

Chyna's lawyer Sam Perlmutter also represented Roddy. I remember having lunch with Sam, Chyna, and Anthony in Beverly Hills. Sam was talking to Chyna about possibly joining a wrestling company in Vegas with Piper. Piper wanted Chyna on his podcast, and had been talking to Anthony about getting that set up.

When Roddy died Chyna was very sad, not just for him, but for his family, who she knew and cared about very much. She was invited along with Anthony by the lawyer to attend his funeral up in Portland, Oregon. At the end of the service, Anthony told Chyna to go up to Hunter and say she was sorry for everything. She did. She even gave Hunter a hug. According to Chyna, Hunter said, "Me too", and they parted ways.

Somehow, Hunter's old best pal Sean "X-Pac" Waltman got wind of this afterwards (I wonder who could have told him). And even though he wasn't there, he blasted Chyna on Twitter for "bum-rushing" Hunter at the funeral, and almost being "taken down by security". I was sick to my stomach, and Chyna was also very distraught. We created a video of her defending her actions. She explained that she had been invited by the lawyer, and that she genuinely did have a tender moment with Hunter at the funeral, which turned out to be their last moment together. I'm very happy that there's footage of it, to show how blown out of proportion the whole thing got. It was filmed by her manager Anthony, in showing this footage there is no disrespect meant toward Piper's family but Chyna's name was dragged through the mud cause of the an event I can prove didn't happen.

More?

Rumor Mill - WWE Bids For TNA

The New York Post posted an article on Billy Corgan trying to become the majority owner of TNA. Also mentioned in the article is WWE’s interest in buying the company. WWE and Sinclair Group have reportedly made bids for the company. Sinclair Group also owns Ring Of Honor. You can read the entire article here.

Corgan was quoted in the article as saying the following regarding the possible purchase of TNA:

“I would love nothing better than to stand up in front of everyone and give a clear picture of where this company is and where it’s going.”

Dave Meltzer commented on how much TNA is worth, seeming to contradict the New York Post’s report, and you can read his tweet below:

Nobody is paying $40 million. Take one zero off https://t.co/Y0kroSlYJJ

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) September 17, 2016

The Cruiserweights Arrive On Raw

Outlasting 31 other competitors from all around the globe, the charismatic T.J. Perkins emerged as the winner of the Cruiserweight Classic Wednesday night, and will bring the WWE Cruiserweight Championship to Raw in Memphis … but he won’t be alone.

WWE.com can confirm that the following Cruiserweights are also joining Team Red:

Brian Kendrick
Rich Swann
Gran Metalik
Cedric Alexander
Lince Dorado
Noam Dar

Who will we see on the Cruiserweights’ first night on Monday night’s hottest show? You won’t want to miss any of the action as a new division ignites Raw’s New Era.

Bray Wyatt on Growing Up In Pro Wrestling, Being Different Than Others, Making a Name for Himself

Bray Wyatt sat down with The Daily Journal to promote an upcoming tour of Tupelo Mississippi. The full interview is at this link and below are highlights:

Always wanting to make a name for himself:

“I don’t really view myself as a legacy. I am my own thing. When I was a child, all I wanted to do was get here some day at some point because I had so much to say and things I wanted to accomplish. Not because someone before me did, but because I had my own message.”

Growing up in the business:

“Growing up in that environment is a strange thing. Most people couldn’t imagine it. When I was a child, I thought everyone was a wrestler. I thought when you went to work, you went to go wrestle. It was weird hearing kids talk trash about your family from what they see on television, but it kind of molded me and made me what I am today – thick-skinned.”

Being the most memorable going today:

“I am the most shock and awe product there is today. It’s a strange vibe when I come out. I’m different than anything else out there. It’s violence and wildness.”

5 Things that Triple H does better than Vince McMahon

Chael Sonnen’s Account Of Vince McMahon Trying To Sabotage A UFC Card Is Mind-Boggling

Buff Bagwell Details His WWE Lawsuit

“I was sitting at home one day, and – keep in mind, I was called up about the concussion lawsuit going on, you know how the boys are, there’s a lot of trash in this business; a lot of it – I remember me and Lex [Luger] talking about it like come on man, really? No one made me do anything, it was a scam, reaching out for things. It’s ridiculous. Well, I’ve probably over the years had three or four or five of those kind of phone calls, where somebody saw a loophole, trying to get everybody together to go after Vince, and everytime I’m like, you gotta be kidding me. One day I get a call, about a year ago, probably, from a lawyer, super great guy, his name is Matthew Peterson, and he talks to me for a minute and says, ‘I’m doing a thing where I’m checking on independent contracts; I know a lot about WCW’. He made me give him my resume over the phone. And it was a good one. I liked the way he spoke, I liked the way he talked, he said, ‘basically, what I do is I look at your contract, and I see if you felt like you’ve been mistreated at all; and if you do, we look at some openings and see how you feel about that.’ I said, I’ll send you a copy of my contract today so you can look at it and see what you think! So, I sent him my contract, and I realize that in a class action lawsuit, there’s a bunch of people always. Well, there aren’t a whole lot of people who worked for the WCW, WWF, and WWE, and I fall in that real small group of names that did that.

So, maybe that’s why I thought this one was intriguing at first. I said that only thing I’m upset about, is every single week, I hear somebody say, ‘you were on WWE, the nWo part is on now, and you beat up Scotty Riggs’. The first time I heard that, no big deal, didn’t think anything about it. All of a sudden, I’m hearing 2 Cold Scorpio, Scotty Riggs, Nasty Boys. So me and this lawyer started talking, and he sees that they didn’t – through their wording – fire me. They released me. I realized that I wasn’t getting any checks anymore. Every once in a while I would get a 100 dollar check, a 200 dollar check here and there, but nothing was ever WWE Network. It was always some kind of nWo tape that I was on, or t-shirts. And the last thing I got from them, and that’s what got me on this, was probably 5,6,7 years ago; and it was probably a hundred bucks. All of a sudden, I’m hearing the Network, Network, Network, and I’m always on it. And little kids come up to me and say, ‘Yeah I saw you! My daddy watched you on TV!’ So, me and the lawyer started talking, and sure enough, he finds a loophole where they owe me a breakdown that they have to pay me a certain amount of money quarterly. And that’s all it basically boils down to.”

William Regal Announces the Return of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic

During tonight’s WWE NXT TV tapings, William Regal announced the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will return and culminate at NXT Takeover Toronto.

WWE Cruiserweight Classic Winner And First RAW Cruiserweight Champion Revealed

TJ Perkins defeated Gran Metalik by submission in the finals of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic to win the CWC trophy and become the first-ever WWE RAW Cruiserweight Champion.

Perkins defeated Kota Ibushi earlier in the night in the semi-finals while Metalik defeated Zack Sabre, Jr.

Perkins will be on Monday's RAW with the title and other cruiserweights as the new division officially kicks off.

Full Results

Paige Issues Statement On Her WWE Status And WWE Wellness Policy Suspension

Paige posted the following on Instagram:

First, I'd like to thank all my fans for their love and support the last few weeks. Let me begin by saying that the rumors that I'm leaving WWE are completely false! I certainly look forward to returning back to action at some point, once my injury is treated and on a healthy return. Although I was disappointed by my suspension, I respect the WWE's Wellness Policy. However, let me be clear that I was not suspended for failing a drug test, it was merely due to a procedural issue. I took the test, I passed it. I arranged said test to happen after I wasn't at my home when Aegis contacted me. So I drove 200 miles to do it. Unfortunately I didn't do it in time, according to Aegis. Once again, thank you for all the love and support.

More Details on Vince McMahon’s Injury

As noted, WWE announced on Monday that Vince McMahon was injured while training and underwent surgery. He is expected to be back to work at WWE HQ on Wednesday. It was noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Vince tore his quad while doing squats.

WWE Announces Vince McMahon Is Injured

From WWE.com:

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon sustains injury

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon sustained an injury while training, requiring surgery, WWE.com has learned. The Chairman will be back in the office at WWE Headquarters on Wednesday, as usual.